Lupe Velez and Her Lovers

Although ostensibly a biography of the actress, Conner's ( Golf ) book seems more like a disjointed collection of quotes from publications on early Hollywood. The brief facts about Lupe Velez's short life (1908-1944) sink under the weight of mainly familiar items not only on her affairs but on many other notorious couplings in the film colony: Gable and Lombard, John Gilbert and Garbo, Clara Bow and everybody. As for Velez, ``The Mexican Spitfire,'' she was a teenager when she arrived in the U.S., appearing briefly in a revue in Hollyood before landing the plum role with Douglas Fairbanks in The Gaucho that launched her career. Among her sexual partners, Conner counts Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper and Johnny Weissmuller, the swimming star she married in 1933 and divorced in 1938. Then, with fewer good roles coming her way and pregnant by a small-time actor who deserted her, Velez committed suicide. Photos. (Nov.)